


Patrol

by GoodVun12



Series: Firsts [4]
Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Sad, first, just sad sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 11:40:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21337642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoodVun12/pseuds/GoodVun12
Summary: Ellie is sixteen and as such is due for her first patrol, it doesn’t go as planned.It’s an emotional one
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Series: Firsts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1516367
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Patrol

**Author's Note:**

> Original character ahoy!

Ellie was nervous. She was sixteen now. In the stories that Joel used to tell her about the old world, this is the age of teens learning to drive (even though she already knew how) and something called a Sweet Sixteen which Ellie was sure just was a giant cake and not a lavish event that Joel had made it out to be. In Jackson, turning sixteen meant you were eligible for patrol duty.   
Patrol duty was essentially a small armed group of people surveying the perimeter of the town and clearing out any infected from the area. If there even were any, some of the regular guards had been talking earlier about not seeing any for weeks. No runners or clickers, and they couldn’t remember the last time a bloater showed up. After the area was cleared out, those on patrol would mark the safe space with paint on the surrounding trees. Then loggers would be escorted out to take them down. That way on the next patrol, progress can be made on putting a security barrier around the area so that people in the town could start to put up defences and building. A relatively simple idea that had been proven effective, but Ellie was sweating bullets. Travelling across country with Joel was way more terrifying, but being on patrol with others meant she was partly responsible for their safety. She had lost too many people in her life to lose any of her new friends in this town. She was nervous for them, and being Joel’s daughter in all the ways that it mattered, she was ready to lay down her life to protect them.

“You ready?” Asked Joel, seeing how Ellie looked stiff.   
Ellie took a long deep breath and could feel it trying to spread through her body and put out the fires that were spreading through her. “Yeah I’ll be fine, just a little on edge, ya know? You aren’t going to be there and I feel like I’m responsible for the others because I’ve got the most experience out there”.   
Joel chuckled, “You got that right Kiddo, you certainly do. It’ll be fine but know that you ain’t responsible. If shit goes south in a bad way. You get out of there. FAST”.  
Ellie nodded and stood up off of the sofa. “I better go” she said, grabbing her trusty backpack from beside her. She had packed her bow, her knife, some first aid kits, even a pistol in case of emergencies. Ellie quickly walked to the door of their lodgings, she flashed Joel a half-enthusiastic smile. She hesitated reaching for the door handle but powered through and opened it. Her first challenge was over, actually mustering you to courage to go.   
Ellie made her way to the one and only entrance to the community. A small group were already there checking their guns, bows and supplies. A tall imposing figure of a man was stood next to Maria. He was the kind of guy that no one in their right mind would mess with, now or before the world got infected. Yes he was tall, but wide, not skinny but not fat. It was muscle and it looked to Ellie like he could kill a Bloater with a single punch if he wanted. Ellie had gotten to know this man during her stay in Jackson of course, his name was Brendan and he was secretly a pussy cat. Although more like a tiger sometimes. Ellie knew he could easily handle himself, but he was very sweet to her.  
“Hey girly” said Brendan, his voice grizzly but welcoming, “You excited about your first patrol?”  
“Well..” Ellie replied, looking at the floor trying to avoid the question as if she could find an excuse laying on the floor.  
Brendan laughed. “You should be” he said, “you’re with me and we have an easy job. We ain’t going with the others, we have to go and hunt a wolf that’s been spotted in an area around here. Don’t need him mailing us or trying to get at our livestock. Don’t worry, I’ll do the hunting and you can just help me track it. I know you picked up some good tracking skills from your dad”.  
Ellie smiles “Sounds good dude, let’s go”.

Whilst out tracking Ellie and Brendan chatted a little about each other’s lives. Ellie talked about her cross-country trip and told Brendan how to follow paw tracks and scat properly, Brendan, who was usually fairly quiet about his personal life opened up a little to Ellie, talking about his old job as a worker on something called an oil rig. As they came to a small cave at the foot of a cliff side, the talking stopped.  
“Okay Ellie, I’m going to lay a trap here. I’ll put some rabbit meat down here and let him come out to us once he picks up it’s scent. You climb up that tree and keep your bow fixed on him. When I fire, you fire. Got it?” Brendan asked.  
Ellie nodded. “Got it”

Once everything was in position, Ellie and Brendan got into their places and waited. Sure enough, a lone wolf appeared from the cave and sniffed around the meat. Ellie was ready to fire, she just needed to wait for...

THUD

An arrow hit the neck of the wolf, it fell to the ground from the impact. Ellie released her arrow and it hit the wolf in the chest. The wolf didn’t get up. Brendan approached the wolf slowly and keeping low.   
“Sshhh” he said to the wolf, “sorry but I can make this quicker, you poor thing”. Brendan took his hunting knife from his belt and crouched next to the wolf and plunged the knife into the wolf’s heart, killing it instantly. “You’re at peace now buddy” Brendan said before turning to where Ellie was hidden, “you can come down now Ellie”. Ellie scrambled down the tree and rushed towards him. She looked down at the body of the wolf. “It’s sad, he just needed to eat, same as us. You were really good with him though” she said, bumping her shoulder into Brendans arm.  
“Her. She’s a female. She’s fully grown but smaller than a male, you can tell” he said, “I used to watch a lot of nature documentaries on the rig and at home with...” he trailed off, just looking at the corpse. “Plus no dick” Brendan suddenly blurred out before bursting into uproarious laughter. When he stopped he put his hand on Ellie’s shoulder and said “come on girly, we gotta get home”. 

The two of them walked in silence for a bit, Ellie was lost in thought. Who was the person Brendan watched nature documentaries with? It seemed like he was going to say something important. As they were nearing the trail up to the entrance gate, Ellie found the courage to ask him.   
“Hey Brendan” said Ellie in a quiet voice.  
“Yeah?”  
“Who did you used to watch those documentaries with? It seemed like you didn’t want to tell me but I want you to know you can”  
Brendan gave a soft smile and stopped walking. “Can you keep a secret?” He asked.  
“Trust me” Ellie said, subconsciously touched where her bite mark was, “I can keep a secret”  
Brendan sat on one of the logs cut down from a previous patrol and patted the wood next to him for Ellie to sit. She did.  
“Before the outbreak I used to be a husband to the most gorgeous woman I’d ever seen, and a father to the two naughtiest little boys you’d ever meet. My wife, Alice, she was training to be a veterinarian and she’d make me and the boys watch those nature documentaries every time they were on. They were good believe me, but with Freddie and Frankie running around and jumping on the sofa it was hard to concentrate. I loved my family, but I lost them. They’ve gone now and I’m the only one left. I don’t like talking about it, sore memories you know, but maybe that’s my issue. Nobody really knows much about me, keeps me mysterious, but we can keep this our secret okay girly?”   
Ellie was welled up. She grabbed Brendan and hugged him so tightly. “Okay” Ellie said, face buried in Brendan’s jacket.  
“Come on, let’s go back” he said.

As the two of the stood up and brushed themselves off, a rustling came from the bushes from 20 feet away. Brendan turned his head and waited to see what it was. The rustling stopped.  
“Stay here” he said. He crouched low, and moved slowly towards the bushes. He reached into the bush to pull it apart and investigate what was inside. A rotting hand shot out and grabbed Brendan by the neck pulling his closer in.  
“Brendan!” Yelled Ellie as she ran towards him. She could see Brendan struggling to get the runner to let go of the back of his neck. Ellie swung her backpack around and off of her back and to the ground, sifting through her bag to get to the pistol. Her eyes darting back and forth between her bag and the scuffle between Brendan and the runner until finally her hand made contact with the gun. She turned, aimed, waited for the shot and, eventually, fired.

The bullet went straight through the runner’s head and out of the back. It was dead. Brendan fell back, exhaling deeply and quickly.   
“You okay girly?” He said to Ellie.  
“Yeah” she said, “I’m good. You?”  
Brendan pulled the collar of his jacket down, revealing a bite mark. It was deep, remnants of the black infected blood on the wound. “No, I don’t think I am”.  
“Brendan, no!” Ellie ran to him, clinging tightly onto him. “We were just getting to know each other. We had a secret now”  
Brendan hugged her back while he caught his breath. “Look at it like this, I’ll get to see my family again. I knew this day would come eventually, I’m at peace. I just don’t want to turn into one of those things. So I’m asking you for a favour, leave me your gun. I’ll stop myself from turning when you are out of sight. You run in back, got it?”   
Ellie was shocked. “But!” She said but Brendan stopped her.  
“I said leave me the gun, got it?” He looked her dead in the eyes, Ellie could barely hold the look though as she burst into tears. “I hope you see your family” she told him before turning and running along up the trail to the gate until she could no longer see Brendan.

Joel was waiting at the gate for her and gave her a wave as she ran, full speed, up to him and threw her arms around his waist. He could feel her crying her heart out against his stomach.  
“What’s wrong Baby Girl?” He asked, “where’s Brend-“. The realisation hit him like a tonne of bricks. He crouched down face to face with Ellie. “What happened? I can help hi-“

A lone gunshot rang out across the valley. 

Ellie let out a loud cry and forced the words out through the tears, “you can’t help him anymore. He got bit”.

Joel let her calm a bit before pushing any further and just held her. When Ellie has found strength to talk, she explained everything that happened to Joel and then to Tommy.  
“Dammit, he was one of our best men” said Tommy, hanging his head and turning to walk off.   
“Is there anything I can do?” Joel asked Ellie, attempting to help.  
Ellie just looked down the trail towards the clearing and tried to wipe her tears away. “I wanna watch a nature documentary” she said.  
“I’ll see if the school has any. Meet you at home in a little bit” Joel said, leaving Ellie to grief.

“Brendan, I hope you are with your family buddy”.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed or didn’t please let me know with a comment or Kudos so I can better my work. Thank you.


End file.
